Phil Jackson sat sipping his favorite soft drink, the Arnold Palmer mixture of lemonade and iced tea. Jackson’s cane, the one he uses as he recuperates from a second hip-replacement surgery, lay an easy putt away. Behind Jackson, the sun began to set into the glittering Pacific Ocean. The symbolism was obvious, even to me.
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Is the sun about to set, not only on the brilliant coaching career of the newest NBA Hall of Fame coach but also on the glorious success enjoyed by the Los Angeles Lakers?
“We’re at a critical point,” conceded Jackson. “Players [once] jumped to get the opportunity to play with the Lakers. It meant an opportunity to maybe win a championship. Now we have to compete real hard for free agents.
“This is a team that is probably the No. 1 [road] fan attraction. It’s got a mystique about it. We are definitely covetous of that past. We know Kobe Bryant is one of the reasons why we draw like that. We need to add to that, by our play or the bettering of talent.”
NBA training camps open Monday for the 2007-08 regular season, which starts Oct. 30. There are many interesting story lines beyond the intrigue inside the Staples Center, like the San Antonio Spurs’ quest for their first championship repeat and the rebirth of the Boston Celtics with All-Stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining Paul Pierce. There’s the Western Conference challenges posed by the Phoenix Suns with Grant Hill, and the Dallas Mavericks along with the revitalized Houston Rockets, now with international star Luis Scola and new coach Rick Adelman.
In the Eastern Conference, the popular pick is for the Bulls to finish on top of a wide-open conference, with challenges coming from Miami, Cleveland, New Jersey and Detroit. And watch out for Milwaukee (with China’s Yi Jianlian) and Toronto with a team disguised as entrants in a three-point shooting contest.
And yet, one of the most captivating dramas will play out near Hollywood. Bryant, who last spring declared his independence from his team, is expected to be in training camp and play the season for the Lakers.
Bryant, generally regarded as the league’s best talent, can opt out after the 2008-09 season and would be the biggest catch in a league that has seen stars like Garnett and Allen traded and had others like Shawn Marion and Andrei Kirilenko wanting the same.
“I think Kobe is ready and willing,” Jackson said. “I think there’s obviously some residual effect. He said his piece. He made his intent known. I think he understands this business and he’s going to come back.
“My message to Kobe has been, ‘You can’t just play with your body and you can’t just play with your mind. You have to have it in your heart too.’
“Kobe is a guy who understands that, whatever, he has six, seven [good] years left in his career and he wants to win,” said Jackson, who also is evaluating his own health as he enters the final year of his contract. “We’ve talked about Michael [Jordan] coming back at 32, 33 — how remarkable it was and winning championships. He understands that, the wear and tear. He wants to go out and finish off his career like he was five, six years ago.”
With the Lakers?
Jackson acknowledges the Lakers now are, “realistically, a second-tier team in the West. We want to crack that [top-four] tier. We have to step up into that place where Utah got last year.”
It seems clear that’s how Bryant and Jackson will measure their futures. The belief among many in Los Angeles is if the Lakers have another poor season, it might lead to a Bryant trade.
Those around Bryant say he continues to talk about the Bulls.
Only Bryant would embrace the chance and challenge to upstage Jordan in Chicago. Perhaps it’s just coincidence, but Bryant changed his Lakers’ uniform number to 24 and took No. 10 with the U.S. Olympic team. Jordan wore No. 23, of course, and No. 9 in the Olympics.
One more than Jordan?
I wouldn’t put it past Bryant to believe he could win four championships with the Bulls to get to seven overall after his three with the Lakers and Shaquille O’Neal.
The Bulls appear on the verge of making it back to the Finals, and Jackson is among those who are impressed.
“They made a good run,” Jackson said. “They showed last year they can win playoff games. They had that humiliating pounding by Detroit when they were not able to score. I think it made them savvy and probably helped them.”
So if the Bulls are close, is Bryant the final piece? Could Jackson, who seems committed to living in California with a strong relationship with the Lakers’ Jeanie Buss and a beachfront home, be the guy again, as he once was, to get the Bulls to Point C (which we now know stands for championship)? After all, the Lakers hired him twice.
But don’t discount the Bulls’ consistent improvement under Scott Skiles.
It’s a lot of ifs and buts, though who imagined Garnett would be in Boston? Or that Shaq would be traded.
Michael Jordan instructed us to never say never. It’s the fun of the NBA. You never know whose personal agenda is going to change some team’s history.
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Camp questions
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Kobe in L.A.? Kobe in Chicago? Those aren’t the only questions around the NBA as camps open Monday …
*Can Golden State build on its playoff upset of Dallas? Can Dallas recover?
*Can Michael Jordan get anything going in Charlotte with Jason Richardson? Can Isiah Thomas in New York with Zach Randolph?
*Can LeBron James continue to carry the load? And what will a full season together mean for Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson in Denver?
*Can the Pistons fight off aging? Can Pat Riley put up with his roster without midseason surgery on them?
*Can Memphis, like Toronto, reproduce the Suns’ speed model? The Grizzlies say they can.
* Will anyone be there when the Hornets move back to New Orleans? Seattle wants to move and you figure Larry Brown is waiting to move back in as 76ers coach.
*Will Portland work on another lottery pick while Greg Oden recovers?
*And Gilbert Arenas is about to do something goofy. Isn’t he?
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